If the Centre Zone of Samarra is the living town, this is the ghost city, a spread of ruins stretching for some forty kilometres along the Tigris, on both banks of the Tigris, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. When the Abbasid caliphs built Samarra, they did so on a monumental scale, with palaces, mosques, barracks, racecourses and gardens, all of mud brick and stucco, and as there was no fortified wall, the city simply grew along the river. Today it is a landscape of low mounds, outlines of buildings and a few huge standing structures, which give a sense of the empire's wealth.
The most famous monument is the Great Mosque, built in 848 to 852 under al-Mutawakkil, which for centuries was the largest mosque in the world, with walls of fired brick enclosing a space about the size of several football pitches. Beside it stands the Malwiya, the spiral minaret, a conical tower of brick about fifty-two metres high, with a ramp winding round the outside to the top. Nothing like it survives anywhere else, and it is often compared with the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia, which the builders would have known. Insurgents blew the top of it in 2005, and repairs have followed.
Other sites include the Balkuwara palace and the Qasr al-Ashiq, a small circular palace on the river, and a huge palace complex, the Jawsaq al-Khaqani, with its great arched gateway, the Bab al-Amma, overlooking the Tigris. The decoration found here, with carved stucco in what scholars call the Samarra style, was copied across the Islamic world, and Samarra pottery and glass are on display in museums everywhere. Look for the abstract, curving designs of the stucco, which spread to Egypt and beyond.
Visiting is complicated. The site lies about seventeen kilometres from Samarra town, the area has seen conflict, and UNESCO listed it as endangered in 2007. Security checkpoints and permissions are real obstacles, and anyone planning a visit should seek current advice and probably a local guide. The landscape is exposed and flat, with no shade and fierce summer heat, so the best months are March to April and October to November. Fuel and basic supplies come from the town, and you should carry water and sun protection and treat any visit as something to arrange with care.